KANNIYAKUMARI: For 34-year-old Sree Raj from Manjalaumoodu, the world is a canvas painted partially. Born in a poor family, he was forced to toil in brick kilns with his mother from childhood and dropped out from ITI due to financial reasons. Little did he know then that an idea, the size of a matchstick, would earn him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Sree Raj developed an interest in drawing in Class 6 when he used to help his seniors in zoology and botany assignments. After dropping out from ITI, he started to work in a hotel at Thiruvananthapuram to make ends meet. Reviving his interest in craft, he made a pencil sketch of the hotel owner, who would later urge him to continue chasing his passion. After a four-month struggle, the 'tiny sticks' have shaped themselves into a face that helped many to think and laugh, forgetting the pains and pangs of life. The 'match-stick' Charlie Chaplin thus created testifies the versatile film-maker's statement: Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
He went on to create a similar mosaic of Santa Claus in 2018 with 1,50,000 broken glass. "I used 3,57,215 matchsticks to make the image of Charlie Chaplin. I also made the largest pencil image of former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in 2013. To make the portrait of social reformer Mahatma Ayyankali in Karakonam, I made a 13-metre, 90 kg paintbrush. I want to use my skill not just to make a living, but also create quality art and display it globally," he said, assuring to fill the rest of the canvas with his brush strokes.